Acute Awareness
by wildface97
Summary: Acquiring a demon body as suddenly as he did takes time to adjust to.
1. Sight

Acute Awareness

_Summary: Acquiring a demon body as suddenly as he did takes time to adjust to. _

_Disclaimer: Kinda obvious I don't own Ao No Exorcist._

* * *

Chapter 1 – Sight

Rin only learned that demons existed on the day he was metamorphosed into a demon. Technically he was a demon his entire life, but apart from his abnormal strength, he had been raised as a typical rebellious teenage boy. Nothing would have prepared him for the change of lifestyle he had to accustom to.

Upon thrusting the forbidden sword out from its sealed scabbard, the sudden shift in his nature pulsed through his system like a heavy drug. Stood within the pile of melting skulls that nibbled at his clothes and pulled him down towards Gehanna, Rin could feel his ears stretch and amplify, his teeth grow slightly too large to fit comfortably in his jaws. He was well aware of his spine curling outwards and ripping through his back; feeling each muscle and tendon follow the flexible end and sew together to create a thin layer of skin before sprouting thousands of hairs to form a long lithe tail. He could feel his eyes burning in the centre as his sight shifted out of shape and his once-black pupils reflected as a threatening scarlet, the blood vessels from beneath burst and bleeding.

Screeching bloody murder at Satan as he stabbed the eye of the Gate and preventing the trip to Gehanna was another way to hide the excruciating pains he had to endure in the last few seconds, his physical pain merging and brewing with his emotional pain. Once the sword was sheathed he'd turn back to normal, right?

Oh, how naïve he was.

Sheathing the flamed sword, and finding his father's corpse among the bloodied and burnt floor, realising his failure at saving his father, left him to cry out whatever pain remained.

At some point Yukio returned to the scene to find his dead deformed dad and his newly shifted brother weeping beside him, at some point the authorities came to clean the mess, and at some point Yukio coaxed Rin silently to his room in which he fell victim to slumber.

* * *

Waking up in his bed could only bring Rin hope that it was all a dream, that none of it happened and that the old man would be downstairs cooking them breakfast because '_Rin didn't get up early enough to cook'_, but a quick glance around the room proved how real the situation was.

For starters, his sight was different.

True, his eyes weren't red-centred as before, but the blue irises he originally had was now a thick array of darks and blues, now and again a light flicker would dance across his eyeball, like a wild flame.

The room appeared bizarrely distorted, seemingly more round and less man-made. Weren't there four straight walls before? The floor didn't look straight anymore either. It appeared bumpy, unsafe, and it was unnerving.

His bunk bed he occupied with his younger twin now looked crazed and unbalanced, definitely unwelcoming to sleep on. Was he truly in the same world? Or had he actually been pulled into Gehanna and was seeing _the mirror of Assiah_?

Rin didn't understand, but he kept quiet, in fear of making anyone present in the house panic. Maybe if he found Yukio, he could explain the distortion?

Just as the teenager was about to exit his room, something slapped against his leg, making him jump in surprise. Peering around, he saw a tail – _his_ tail, casually wafting around in the air.

It was _still_ there?

Wasn't his demon side supposed to be in the sword?

Rushing to his bed side, he noticed with dismay that the sword was sheathed and closed, yet his tail was still very much present. If his tail was still visible, then…

Rin ran for the closest mirror.

* * *

_No, no, he didn't know this would happen!_

As crazy as the atmosphere appeared, Rin stared into the normal-looking reflection of himself in the mirror hung on the bathroom wall, tentatively raising a hand towards his face.

He still looked different. He _still looked different_.

_Why?_

His ears, although not at elongated as he previously recalled, were sharp and elf-like. Bizarre rings were visible in his lobes, giving an animalistic appearance. His teeth had also reduced than previous, at least being able to fit along his jaw comfortably enough, but his canines were needle-sharp and puncturing through his gums, leaving his inner mouth scarred. And, the most noticeable thing of all was the new appendage wagging along his backside. Where was he supposed to hide _that_ monstrosity? Down his _trouser leg_ or something?

How was he supposed to go out in public when he looked like a freak show? Like a _demon_?

As distorted as his world appeared in his eyes, his reflection was as normal and un-disfigured as his usual sight allowed. Rin slowly sunk to his knees, his hand sliding miserably down the glass.

_Breathe. Relax._

Calming down was the best solution. What better way to forget it was there? _Play dumb._

So, keeping a composed state, Rin wrapped his tail around his stomach, got dressed as casually as he could, and left his room.

Waving to the others who resided in the building, he left through the front door with an unusually calm physique. For now, his goal was to find Yukio and ask what was going on.

* * *

As Rin wandered down the bizarrely shaped home, trying to ignore the distortion that only drugs could induce, he came to realise that his _demon_ sight saw everything man-made as some foreign object, while natural things like trees and other living organisms appeared completely normal.

_Weird_, he thought passively, peering around the street corner in search of his younger brother. There was no use complaining, he figured, he'd probably just have to get used to it until they could figure out a way to fix it.

Giving up searching outside, Rin headed back for the house, his tail twitching gingerly under his baggy shirt, irritating his skin. Would it just _sit still_? It was like it had a mind of its own!

As if to reply the appendage curled itself tighter around his upper body; causing him to wince at the constriction. It was pretty strong, despite its ethereal appearance.

Rin closed the door behind him, greeting the people who worked in the monastery. One of them called out to him, "Ah, Rin? Are you okay? About…Yesterday?"

Rin halted, facing the hallway he was about to walk to, before turning around to face the man, "Ah, yesterday?"

The man took a tentative step forward, "Yeah, with Fujimoto's death and… Stuff?"

_Oh. Right_.

He hadn't even considered his father. He was too busy trying to adjust and look for Yukio that it hadn't even crossed his mind. Guilt boiled in his stomach. Could he really just pass off the old man's death so peaceably?

His mouth mumbled for words, "Ah, yeah. I'm – it's fine, but not fine, I mean, I feel… Yeah."

The man merely smiled sympathetically before returning to whatever duties he had to do. Rin continued walking towards the hallway to the stairs until a thought hit him.

_What did the guy mean by "Stuff"? _

_Did he know he had shifted into a demon? Was he in on it?_

_Was… Was __**everyone**__ in on it?_

He hesitantly took his first step up the stairs. _Fine_, if they always knew he was some sort of monster, he could deal with this sight issue on his own. They probably knew all of his little quirks inside and out, more so than himself.

* * *

_Gawd, this was so awfully written =_=_

_I'm sorry if I made your eyes bleed by reading this rubbish._

_Anyway, I'm planning to make 7 chapters for this fic. It's a lame fic all about Rin's senses shifting to be more… Demony._

_Yeah._

_That's it. No pairings, no nothing. The might be some random embarrass blushes and chizz, but that's merely because he does that a lot in the manga and anime. Blushing does not always been romance people, get yer minds outta the gutter!_

_Sorry, Rin seems very OOC in this. I'll be making him lose his bad-boy look to get a little more goofy as this progresses._

_And I only write chapters when I feel like it – none of that weekly rubbish. In fact, it could be months before I update. I'm mean like that._

_So if yer a patient buggar, you can hopefully keep reading? I appreciate reviews and stuff telling em how awful a writer I am X)_

_Okay, tah tah!_

_Wildface._


	2. Smell

_**IMPORTANT: CHAPTER 2 WAS EDITED COMPLETELY BECAUSE IT WAS RUSHED AND I WASN'T HAPPY WITH IT. ENJOY THE COMPLETELY EDITED CHAPTER 2**_

Acute Awareness

_Summary: Acquiring a demon body as suddenly as he did takes time to adjust to. _

_Disclaimer: Does this really need to be here? It's a Fanfiction site; of course I don't own Ao No Exorcist!_

* * *

Chapter 2 – Smell

Rin's first day in the exwire class hadn't turned out exactly how he had expected. For starters, his suspicions had been correct in the fact that the entire monastery had known that Rin was in fact a demon. This of course, included his younger brother Yukio; his younger brother who was now his _sensei_ for the pharmacy class in the cram school.

Trying to regain his shock of his twin's entry, Rin attempted to sort out his problems without violence…Which somehow resulted in an onslaught of enraged hobgoblins to attack them.

How did that happen again?

_Oh yeah_, Rin recalled, leaning up on his new bed in his dormitory, he had shoved Yukio a little too hard which caused him to drop that vile of… _stuff_. His nose wrinkled in thought.

_What __**was**__ that stuff?_

It was probably best if he asked that aloud if he wanted answers. Leaning to his right, Rin bore his gaze into Yukio's back, who was currently studying on his side of the counter across the room.

"Hey Yukio?" Rin asked; curiosity present in his tone.

His brother hummed in response to prove he was listening. Rin rocked back and forth a bit, perched comfortably enough on his bed, "What was that stuff that you dropped in class? The smelly thing?"

Yukio stopped doing whatever he was doing, before swirling his chair to face his brother, "You mean the vile of rotten animal blood that _you_ made me drop?"

Rin flushed embarrassedly as he retorted, "You should have held it tighter! I only nudged ya!"

Yukio smiled slightly at his brother's behaviour before continuing, "What about it?"

Rin sat there, with a confused expression, as if he had forgotten what he was originally going to ask, before he snapped his fingers in remembrance and continued, "Ah, was it just animal blood?"

Yukio appeared puzzled, "Yes, why?"

The eldest twin leaned back on his bed, pondering, "Is animal blood all it takes to do this…?" he mumbled to himself.

"Do _what_?" Yukio asked, alarmed. _Had his demon nature reacted to the scent of blood_? That could make Nii-san dangerous.

"Ah," Rin looked up to see his twin looking slightly panicked, "Nothing big, don't worry spotty four-eyes, it just messed up my nose is all."

"Messed up your nose?" he asked, deciding to ignore the childish nickname, "What do you mean?"

Rin scrunched his nose irritably, how could he describe it? He pointed to his nose and replied, "Like, a stick's been shoved up my nose. It's itchy, and things smell funny for some reason. Wasn't happening before those…those _hoppy-gobblers_ pounced us."

"Hobgoblins, Nii-san. They were hobgoblins."

"Whatever!" he growled irritably, "I thought maybe the bottle had something in it to mess up the demon's senses, 'cause they scrambled mine!"

Yukio sat in his chair silently, analysing his brother critically. He wasn't acting unusual – if anything a little irritated, but nothing considerably harmful. There was nothing in the vile aside from the rotten blood; he should know consider he made the concoction himself, so there shouldn't be anything plausible to mask his brother's demon senses.

"Maybe it's just a phase you're going through Nii-san."

"A phase!?" Rin repeated in disbelief, "What – you think this is like _demon puberty_ or something?"

"Could be," Yukio chuckled, "Who knows; you're still getting used to your demon body aren't you?"

Getting used to!? _Pu-lease_, Yukio, I've got this body used to and under control!"

In response his tail, hidden under his shirt, lashed out and poked it's tip through the neck hole, more or less whacking the half-demon in the chin. Rin fumbled around a bit in annoyance before successfully shoving the offensive appendage back under his clothing.

"_You didn't see that_," Rin growled, looking away from his brother. Blinking curiously, Yukio tilted his head a little. He hadn't actually fully seen his brother's tail yet.

"Ah, Nii-san, you can have your tail out when in the dorms. I mean, we _are_ the only two people living in here."

Rin childishly lifted his knees to his chin as he glared at the wooden floorboards, "I don't want my tail out," he moped.

"Why not? Is it comfortable in your shirt?"

There was a drawled out sigh before a quiet, "No…" was heard.

"Then let it out," Yukio concluded.

Rin grimaced in reply. After several moments of silence, Yukio sighed a little and was about to turn around, when he noticed a loop enweaving from his brother's shirt. Rin looked the other way stubbornly as his tail wove from under his clothing and made its appearance.

The appendage stretched a little, as if it was stiff from being wrapped under his shirt for the past couple of weeks, before it swished noisily through the air in a U shape. Rin peered over his shoulder to stare at the tail, ignoring Yukio's curious stare.

Rin's sight drifted from his tail to his brother, suddenly his eyes widened in surprise. Some strange fog trail was emanating from his brother, wrapping lazily around the boy's figure. Yukio didn't seem to notice; his eyes were hidden behind the shine of his glasses, but his face seemed expressionless.

"O-oi," Rin announced, raising a finger towards Yukio, "what's that stuff?"

Before Yukio could even answer, Rin inhaled deeply and clenched his nose tightly, yelling "_Holy cheese_- what _cologne_ are you _wearing_!?"

"What?" Yukio asked, confused by the sudden mood swings his brother was going through, "I'm not wearing any cologne."

"What, is it _perfume_ then?" Rin tried to joke, but kept his hand tight around his nose, "It's so strong I can _see_ it!"

"See what Rin? I'm not wearing any scented products!" Yukio asked in exasperation.

Tentatively, Rin unclenched his nose, and took a short quick sniff. Then another. Then another.

"Rin, stop that. You sound like a dog sniffing the garbage."

"You," Rin started, unable to put his feelings into words, "You smell of… _You_."

Yukio's eyebrows scrunched in confusion, "What are you _talking_ about Rin? Are you feeling sick? Should we ask Mephisto?"

Rin shook his head, "No no, you just. Your scent just- gah how do I say it? Your scent got really strong! Like, but you still smell the same, just stronger! And I can see it! It's like smoke!"

"You can _see_ my _scent_?" Yukio asked, sounding dubious.

"_Yes_! I dunno why or how but I can!"

Yukio's head tilted to the side, as he said, "You seem pretty excited about it."

Rin realised that his head was tilted to face his tail, which was surprisingly wagging at a steady pace. Rin grunted a little, grabbing the tail to halt its movements.

Unexpectedly, Yukio wandered past his brother to leave the dorm room. As he exited the door, he hollered, "If you ever whip me with that thing I will trap it in the door."

* * *

Shiemi was a very shy girl.

When Rin was left to sulk outside of the flowery exorcist shop, which in his opinion, _reeked of murder _behind those pollen scent-blockers that were planted around the front of the building, a fresher scent drifted along the wind.

It was a human scent.

Rin had learned that humans and living moving creatures gave off some sort of trail. The stronger a scent was the clearer the visible smog would be. He kinda felt like a blood hound tracking its prey, which, when he thought about it, probably explained why demons would _literally_ hunt down human victims.

The human scent was strangely earthy, which made Rin curious, considering the fact that he'd never smelled an _earth-human_ before. In fact, as he made his way up the stairs to the peculiar-looking gate, Rin presumed he smelt like some sort of golem or something.

What he didn't expect to find was an ordinary girl around his age.

And, his curiosity being the death of him, he didn't realise that her gate was made of silver and practically burned the flesh of his knuckles off as soon as he touched it, causing it to break in violent reaction.

After a rather, _ecstatic_ introduction; most of which being the girl screaming _demon_ at him and throwing her sandals in his face surprisingly accurately, he somehow earned her trust by helping her with her gardening.

_Somehow_.

In all honestly Rin had no clue what had just happened.

Either way, he ended up becoming her little gardening slave, which wasn't _too_ bad, until he almost vomited when she came back with a bucket full of watery cow pat for _him_ to pour. He somehow persuaded her to do it instead, which saved his nose a _whole_ lot more than she'd probably _ever_ know.

As he sat with the blabbering girl who appeared a little lost, he took note of her scent. It was strangely musky and earthy, nothing of which that smelled feminine. Although he understood that she spent the majority of her life gardening, Rin sort of expected her to reek of pollen and possibly honey from the many bees that were buzzing noisily among her plants. But, he was okay with her smell. It was natural; not too sweet, just a natural smell that fit well with his nose unlike the rest of the world that smothered themselves in perfume and chemicals.

When the sweet, yet _non-sweet_-smelling girl got possessed by the freaky looking plant, and her innocent smell was overpowered by the pollen-y demon's wretched fumes, Rin was glad that she smelled nothing like flowers.

Because after that incident, Rin kinda hated flowers.

Especially the smell.

* * *

_Wait…_

_*rereads chapter*_

_Oh god, I accidently made the Shiemi part sound a bit like a pairing._

_Sugar, that was NOT intentional._

_I was trying to describe her smell as something comfortable, so think of it like that._

_They're just friends though. At least, in this fanfic. (I'm well aware that Rin has a small crush on her in the manga, but she kinda punched him in the face with words and played the friends forever card – poor Rin XD)_

_This fanfic is a no pairing, okay? Okay?_

_And no, I ain't a fan of Okumuracest. You people are disgusting._

_Oh! I forgot you guys aren't all British, so just to clarify; cow pat= cow poop. _

_EVERYONE WAS OOC CAUSE I CAN'T WRITE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT YAAAAAY~_

_Thanks for all the reviews – I've never had so many for ONE chapter :D_

_I will answer reviews if they have questions. If not, then just take it as a THANKS FOR THE REVIEW! _


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